Step 3: How to Find Couponing Deals?

The next step is to start watching for store sales, and seeing opportunities where you can stack coupons with store sales. Get into the habit of flipping through store ads, seeing what sales they may have and see if you recognize items you have coupons for.

In the beginning, this step can be overwhelming, because you don’t really know what you’re looking for, AND you’re not sure what’s a good buying price. That’s okay. Even if you don’t plan to buy anything, the act of looking at weekly store ads will help to give you the exposure and experience you need to become fluent in “couponing”.

Every week, flip through your inserts, and look through your store ads. See if there are any good sales that you may have coupons for. And often times, some awesome sales don’t require a coupon.

For example, you are flipping through the store ads for Safeway, and you see a sale on International Delight coffee creamer for two for $4, or $2 each when you buy 2. And you remember seeing on Free Stuff Finder blog about a printable $1 off one coupon for this brand of creamer. A lightbulb goes off in your head: “Ah-ha! I can use the $1/1 printable coupon on the $2 sales price, making them just $1 a bottle. Great deal, since they normally cost $2.99 per bottle.” You just did what we call a “Matchup” – matching a sale with existing coupons.

To make this step easier, blogs like ours, post details on good store deals every day (many, many times a day). So check back on regularly, for updates. In our deal breakdowns, we will cover everything you need to know to make a deal happen, including where to find the coupon (which insert is it in? where is the link to print coupon?), when the deal ends, and any related tips.

Homework:

Pickup a weekly ad flyer (either from the mail, in your papers or from store) and start flipping thru it.